God has a plan

I have to admit, when I first read the first Compassion Blogger assignment for this month, I was thinking, ‘No Way! I really don’t want to revisit my childhood and write a blog post to my childhood self!’ But as the assignment kept weighing on me the last two weeks, I remembered that this assignment is not about me, it is about the children living in extreme poverty, that need you and me to step out in faith, and remind them that God has a plan for their life.

You see, I should not be at this place in my life. I should not be here, asking you to sponsor a child, to release a child from poverty in Jesus’ name. As a child, I had no relationship with Jesus. I didn’t know that He had a plan for my life that was so different than the plan I had for my life.

If things has gone ‘my way’, I would not be writing to you, asking you to be an advocate for children growing up in extreme poverty. I would be a selfish, corporate ladder climbing, working mom, only concerned about my needs and wants.

But 19 years ago, Jesus began working on my heart, drawing me closer to Him, until 14 years ago, I asked Him to be my Savior. The path He has had me on is completely different that any path I imagined myself to be on. I mean, think about it, to go from a Nordstrom clothes wearing women working on going into management to being a capris and t-shirt wearing women who is looking forward to visiting children living in extreme poverty? Only Jesus can make that kind of change in someone’s life.

So yes, God does have a plan. He has a plan to bring many of us into a relationship with Him. And He has plans for many Compassion children to make a difference in the lives of their families and their communities. But in order to do that, they need your help. Would you consider making a sacrifice? Can you and your family do without $38 a month so that a child can realize the plan that God has for their life?

Compassion Blogger Assignment: Hope

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives this definition for the word ‘hope’: a desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is obtainable.

As a child, we have hope for many things: the love of our parents, friends to play with, presents to open on Christmas morning. Simple things that we expect most children to be happy with.

But imagine what it must be like for a child living in extreme poverty. Maybe they have lost one or both parents, maybe they must work to help pay for basic needs of their family so they have no time to play with friends, maybe they have never received a Christmas gift. Simple things that most of us living in this country take for granted.

As a Compassion sponsor, you can give hope to a child living in extreme poverty. You may or may not be able to physically give your sponsored child anything other than the letters you write to them, but you will be showing them the love of Jesus by investing in their life. Are you ready to share the hope of Jesus with a Compassion child today? There are many waiting….

Compassion Blog Month is Back!

Just a reminder to sign up for the Compassion Bloggers Network to join in the goal of seeing 3,160 children sponsored this month! You can read more about what is going to be happening this month on the Compassion blog. Weekly writing assignments will be sent out starting Tuesday, September 3rd, so don’t wait to sign up!

Step in the Gap

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One big reason that I blog these days is to bring about awareness for the thousands of children who are waiting to be sponsored through Compassion. And as a Compassion Blogger, September is shaping up to be a pretty exciting month!

During the month of September, Compassion will be giving Compassion Bloggers some writing assignments which we will post on our own blogs to encourage our readers to ‘step in the gap’ and sponsor a child, to release that child from poverty in Jesus’ name.

There will be some prizes awarded (you can read about them on the Compassion blog), but the best prize will be for the children that will find sponsors and for the families that sponsor them!

Will you be joining in? I sure hope so!

A little Compassion organization

Last week while I was working on the Compassion Pinterest boards, I pinned an item I knew I wanted to try out! I found this pin on the Compassion Australia web site. Australia is one of twelve partner countries which has come alongside Compassion’s mission to help release children from poverty in Jesus’ name.

On the Compassion Australia web site, there is a section dedicated to spreading the word, encouraging other sponsors to write to their sponsored child on a regular basis. As I was looking at some of the items they make available to their sponsors in Australia, I noticed that a few of the items are printables that any of us can take advantage of using. I just love the idea of the All About My Sponsored Child page. Many times when I am writing to our sponsored children, I will look back through their letters to remind myself of important facts. By having everything together on this one page sure can save me a little bit of time!

One other thing I hope to add to this page is a list of the Bible verses the children share with me in their letters. Every letter I receive from my sponsored children has at least one, if not two, Bible verses. Wouldn’t it be great to somehow put all of the verses together for your sponsored child once they have graduated?